Fans add comfort to Hope Plantation

At Historic Hope Plantation, large diameter, low-speed fans circulate the equivalent of nine standard ceiling fans, providing air movement that can be felt from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, at a monthly operating cost of pennies per day.

Historic Hope Plantation, a 50-acre site featuring the restored 1803 mansion of Gov. David Stone, offers insights into the late 18th- and 19th-century rural life in eastern North Carolina. In 1992, the 13,000-square-foot Roanoke-Chowan Heritage Center was added to the site. Serving as a visitor's center, museum and gathering space, the Heritage Center presented a challenge when it came to keeping visitors comfortable.

Heritage Center staff members were having a difficult time efficiently heating the space in the winter, as the small amount of warm air available would rise to the top of the two-story central atrium, leaving visitors in the cold below. Two 8-foot diameter Isis fans by the Big Ass Fan Company provided the solution. Heat rises to the highest reaches of a building, far from the occupant level, which tends to be cooler. A large-diameter, low-speed fan efficiently pushes hot air down to the floor, enhancing visitor comfort.

"I keep the fans on all the time to redistribute the heat in the area," said Bill Smith, Hope Plantation treasurer and bookkeeper. "Guests in the atrium were previously either too cold or too hot, or both. The fans have smoothed things out. People appreciate that, and we have had more attendees as a result."

Historic Hope Plantation, served by Roanoke Electric Cooperative, is located west of Windsor in Bertie County. Visit www.hopeplantation.org.

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